Marvel-Ous? Maybe Not
March 22nd 2009 04:45
The bar for superhero movies has definitely been raised, and without a doubt that's almost exclusively attributed to choosing lesser-known, often indie directors to direct these movies (okay, so Sam Raimi is a notable exception, but he was not known for superhero movies). It allowed alternative directors to put their own spin on an already established story; sometimes it worked and became iconic, like Tim Burton with Batman. Other times it was completely and utterly panned (e.g. um, Joel Schumacher with Batman).
Ang Lee’s Hulk had people giving mixed reviews; several reviews stated that audiences and critics didn't like it because it was "too cerebral" with fewer crash-bang-wallop action set-pieces like in Fantastic Four, which benefitted from having a variety of characters like X-Men, although FF didn't take itself too seriously (with all of the main characters constantly bickering
)I've seen both Ghostrider and The Punisher, and they were, well, bollocks. And I didn't love Spider-man 2 being so full of itself (and the Jesus references, which I guess is a sad by-product of loving the raw material too much to direct it), and a weak link between the better bookends of the trilogy, even though it's a great addition to the series. Last summer’s Iron Man provided disposable comic book fare, but its strengths began and ended with Robert Downey Jr.’s charismatic turn as a character who stepped right out of Lord of War (a disposable piece in itself).
The movie marketplace has been flooded with almost nothing but remakes, adaptations and sequels/prequels. For the last few years there's been a surge in the growing trend of adapting comic book superhero stories into movies, as well as TV shows like Heroes enjoying success on that note. The more of something that there is, I guess the higher the criteria to rise above and the higher the expectation; I was only small but I don't remember much superhero competition when Tim Burton's Batman came out, even amid panning reviews.
With the end results, though, sometimes it's just hit and miss. Reviews, like box-office results and competing movies in the marketplace are so erratic. But, thankfully, The Dark Knight, even through its recent real-life tragedy, doesn't do what every other Batman movie did and spend far too much time retreading old ground just because a new director has been entrusted with the franchise. Christopher Nolan’s reinvention of The Bat is inkeeping with the recent trend of recent incarnations of superheroes as “real people” – The Joker is a small-time, sociopathic punk, whose wardrobe was modelled after Iggy Pop and Pete Doherty. Here, Bruce Wayne is the ultimate playboy – smug, smarmy and downright annoying at that, too. But unlike any other hero, Batman was a normal, unmodified human being, and for the first time, we have a Batman film with real-life, flawed characters.
Maybe there’s hope for superhero films yet.
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Comment by Spike 2
Qwerk
Peanut Butter
Excellent! (Though I haven't seen either of those yet.) I'm quite a fan of the superhero movies, to be honest, but a lot are rubbish. Maybe it's because the biggies have been around for so very long, but not everyone's familiar with them?
Comment by The Film Geekette
The Film Geekette